Professor Royalty's presentation on the Holy Land Experience was fascinating. Coming from a nondenominational Christian perspective, I found the entire park experience almost surreal. It seemed to have so much potential to be a place for Christians to go to connect with their faith and I could see it being a way for Christians to learn about Jesus' life and the Bible stories that go along with it.
However, I also found the entire park to be very fake. It seemed very commercialized, and almost as if the Christian faith was being sold as a joke. Honestly, I feel very conflicted about the whole thing because my church puts on a Vacation Bible School every summer, in which skits are acted out portraying Bible stories and Christ's death and resurrection. It could be argued that this summer camp put on by my church is just as fake, but I think the difference is that the more sacred parts of Christianity, such as taking communion, the altar call, and baptisms are taken more seriously in most churches.
This is entirely my own opinion, but I do not think that the Holy Land Experience accurately portrays the Christian faith. It felt as if things like baptism were simply steps in faith - things to do to "feel Christian," to be able to say that one was Christian, whereas I believe that the point of baptism is to stand before one's congregation, before one's family and friends, and before God, and proclaim one's commitment to faith.
However, the people who work at the Holy Land Experience are people who believe in what they are doing. Although I do not agree with their form of ministry, I have gained a deeper understanding of the importance of accepting others' faiths and understanding that everybody has their own relationship with Christianity or whatever religion they identify with. I may have found the whole thing to be very fake and borderline offensive, but others may consider it to be an incredible experience in which they grew in their faith.
Thanks for posting about this. I too am very fascinated by this theme park. I have to agree with you about how the park is interesting and surreal in some ways. I also agree with you in how the park is very commercialized and exaggerated. This may be on purpose, of course, to attract and entertain children, who seem to be the main target audience of most of the attractions in the park.
ReplyDeleteI do really like how you worded your last paragraph. While we may not entirely agree with the way someone else says or does something, that can sometimes be okay because they believe in what they are doing and obviously enjoy it. This obviously doesn't apply to every situation ever, but it is important to take a step back sometimes and look at things from someone else's point of view.
Great conversation!
ReplyDeleteGreat conversation!
ReplyDeleteI agree that parts of the park, from what we saw, felt extremely commercialized and even comical, which is strange given how seriously a lot of the people who go to the park take their religion. But we have to remember that there's a whole market for this kind of religious commercialism; we see it a lot with movies, like "Heaven is for Real" and "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas," and TV shows like Veggie Tales, but apparently it's also easy to make money off of this in the theme park world, as the HLE and The Ark Encounter are demonstrating.
ReplyDeleteI think to a lot of people, it doesn't really matter how realistically or seriously the events of the Bible are portrayed; they feel that their religion and beliefs gain a sense of legitimacy when they go to a theme park built around their beliefs and see the other hundreds or thousands of patrons who believe the same things they do. In some ways, we can tie that back to the early Christian traditions of entering the Church. Upon entering, you received a whole new family that shared your strong convictions and beliefs, which is exactly what's happening at places like the Holy Land Experience.